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Poem becomes dance in new Harbourfront production

Try this for a line of poetry: “Folks who do not follow God’s norms word for word woo God’s scorn, for God frowns on fools who do not conform to orthodox protocol.” Now, once you’ve swallowed all the “o”s, imagine that as a dance.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Eunoia, first a bestselling poem by Toronto-born Christian Bok, now translated into a dance of the same name by Denise Fujiwara in what she concedes is the biggest challenge of her long choreographic career. The result, part of Harbourfront Centre’s World Stage series, will be unveiled Wednesday.

Bok’s Eunoia, seven years in the making and published in 2001, is unabashedly experimental. It falls into the category of univocalics, a writing exercise constrained by the use of a single vowel.

Bok, a creative writing professor at the University of Calgary, says he had no inkling how successful Eunoia would be. “I wrote it to please a few hundred of my friends,” he says with a chuckle. Instead, apart from winning the prestigious 2002 Griffin Poetry Prize along with enthusiastic reviews, copies of Eunoia moved off bookstore shelves faster than they could be restocked. The book was a similar hit when published in Britain.

As each chapter of Eunoia progresses through the vowels, the poem explodes into a dazzling display of pyrotechnic wordplay. That Bok could achieve this while also loading the poems with real content, ranging from outright bawdy to deeply philosophical, in the process giving each vowel a clearly defined character, is nothing short of miraculous. Best of all, it’s fun; a quality Fujiwara says she’s been intent on transferring to her dance translation. “I want it to be thoughtful but I also want it to be entertaining,” says the former champion child gymnast turned award-winning dancer-choreographer.

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Fujiwara became aware of Bok’s Eunoia early on via her “poetry buff” husband.

She’d already been mulling the challenge of using a piece of text rather than music as the primary driver of a dance and Eunoia seemed the perfect “score.”

“It’s smart, inventive, irreverent and charming,” says Fujiwara.

Bok says he was flattered when Fujiwara first approached him for permission to use his celebrated work. He readily assented. Says Bok: “It seemed to me a plausible extension.”

During the long process of development, Fujiwara consulted with Bok and shared video excerpts from rehearsals. “I offered some feedback and advice,” he explains, “particularly highlighting the importance of the constraint element and of reflecting the personality of each vowel. And I was anxious that it should not be merely illustrative.”

“Christian was extremely generous and trusting,” Fujiwara says.

A full in-studio run-through earlier this month suggests she has taken Bok’s advice to heart. In terms of constraint, Fujiwara determined that movement for each vowel would be initiated from a specific body part. She also decided to use the poem’s verbs, rather than nouns, as her source for movement invention, thus avoiding the trap of literalism.

“I’m not trying to describe the poem or do an exact equivalent,” Fujiwara explains. “It aligns with the poem, but it’s its own world.”

Although Bok’s poetry is the foundation of the dance — Fujiwara’s six-member cast had to memorize large chunks of it — Eunoia is theatrically well accoutred with an evocative soundscore by Phil Strong, video effects by Justin Stephenson, lighting by Ron Snippe and costumes/props by Andjelija Djuric.

Unfortunately, Bok is too busy to come to Toronto to see what Fujiwara and her cohorts have wrought; but he’s eager to see a video recording and hopes Eunoia will tour nationally so he may eventually experience it live.

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